( MELEAGRIS   GALLOPAVO )

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All turkeys originated in America. It is recorded that a Spanish explorer discovered turkeys on the North Coast of Venezuela in 1499 and shipped the first specimens to Spain in 1500. Sixteen years later some reached France. It is believed that the first turkeys to reach England arrived in 1821, and from there they  probably came to South Africa.

NOTE:Turkeys thus did not originate in Turkey as many people think, and also not in Calcutta, India, from which the Afrikaans word “kalkoen” is derived. 

(KALKUTTA se hoen=Kalkoen)

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